High Schools
It is all in the family for Miyashiro siblings

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Kalani girls volleyball coach Tehani Miyashiro, left, says her sister, Tamari, "has to work as hard as everyone else, if not harder." The Falcons are off to a 6-0 start this season. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

But at Kalani High School, there's a sister act with a twist.

Tamari Miyashiro grew up watching and admiring her sister Tehani, an all-state volleyball player at Punahou School and former University of Hawai'i Wahine. But these days, Tamari, a 14-year-old freshman outside hitter, plays for her older sister.

Tehani, 22, is the first-year girls varsity coach for the Falcons, who are off to a 6-0 start to lead the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division.

"Very challenging," said Tamari of having big sister watching over her. "You gotta work the hardest."

Her coach concurs.

"I'm hard on her, just like my mom used to coach when I was playing for her," said Tehani, whose mother is Kamehameha girls coach Joey Akeo Miyashiro, also a former Wahine player. "She has to work as hard as everyone else, if not harder."

But there is no crossing under the net at home. Most of the game stays on the court or during the ride home to Kane'ohe.

"When I'm home, I'm just her sister because I know that home is not really the place to bring a whole lot of things that I want to talk to her about," Tehani said. "I know that there's a time and place for everything because when my mom was coaching me or my dad would come home with me, taking me home in the car, (they) would talk my ear off about the game.

"I know my boundaries that I need to keep. If it's a major, major thing, I'll talk to her about it. But the other thing is we gotta have peace at home."

Nonetheless, advice, or "lectures" as she puts it, comes to Tamari in surround sound. Besides her sister, her mother offers advice; Joey coaches Tamari's Kilohana club team in the offseason.

Also, her father is Kalani athletic director Gordon Miyashiro, a former football coach whose athletic notoriety came as an all-star offensive lineman for the Farrington Governors in the late 1960s. Even he offers advice.

"The non-volleyball player," mused Tamari.

But constructive advice, says her mother.

"He's been a coach all his life, so he sees things the two of us might miss," Joey said. "There are a lot of similarities (in coaching different sports), such as the concept of teaching."

Tamari isn't the only Miyashiro sibling getting advice. When Joey's Warriors aren't playing — and when her son Ainoa, a sophomore starting setter for Kamehameha's boys' varsity, is not playing — she will sit behind her daughter at matches. Tehani said that gives her some peace of mind as she tries to navigate through her first season as coach. But when asked if she turns to her mother for pointers, she said she doesn't have to.

"She's more willing to give to me," said Tehani with a laugh.

One of the things Tehani said she learned from her mother was composure on the bench. Tehani, who admits she misses the competitiveness of playing, said she was a bit high-strung coaching her first match.

"I was thinking I had to be the motivator," Tehani said. "If you looked at me the first game and (the Oct. 1) game, I was a total different person."

Joey said Tehani has potential in the coaching field.

"She has a good head for coaching," said Mom. "Her vision is real wide. I didn't have that vision when I was her age and started coaching."

Yet, all of this came together by accident. Gordon had two potential candidates fall through for the job opening. With time running out, he literally went in-house to solve the problem. And "no" was not an option.

"One day, he asked me — well, he really didn't ask me — he said, 'You're going to coach, OK?' " Tehani said with a laugh.

Ironically, it was just three seasons ago that Joey was coaching the Falcons before leaving to take over at Kamehameha last year. Tamari, then a sixth-grader, was shagging balls for her mom's team.

Tehani said that she had hoped to play volleyball professionally after her career at UH, which was cut short after two seasons. But now she has an 18-month-old son, Tausili, to care for, a job as a counselor at an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program at Kalaheo High, and a college degree to complete. She took off from school to coach this semester, but plans to return next semester.

"If things go well, hopefully, I'll be coaching at the collegiate level," she said.